The Wild Rose Press

Monday, October 20, 2014

Haunted Garden: The Acolyte

A Halloween Story

The Acolyte

The tower clock struck
midnight. Ravenwood tensed, glanced over her shoulder at the Sanctuary.
No lights shone in the mullioned windows. The Masters mustn’t catch
her out alone at night. Punishment would be rapid and severe. She
might even be banished. Her reputation at the school had suffered for
her sister’s sin.
She lit the torch, black smoke billowing from the
flame. A darkling shiver crawled down her rigid spine. The voices that
had roused her from sleep whispered a warning as she crept into the
abandoned barn. A lonely owl hooted from the rafters, ruffling its
feathers and blinking. Red light winked in the bird’s golden eyes. She
swallowed hard, straining her ears for any sound. The eerie stillness
chilled her soul.

Ravenwood had come to say her last goodbye to
her sister. Tonight, Mariana slept the peace of the dead in this old
outbuilding. Tomorrow, she would be lowered into unhallowed ground.
Then only god knew what the fate of a demon’s consort would be. Her
breathing rasped loud, puffing white clouds in the October air. She
inched deeper into the gloom, shoved the hood of her robe back. Shadows
capered in her peripheral vision. A web caught in her hair, clung to
her face. Another hard shudder coursed through her, and gooseflesh
prickled her limbs. Nausea swirled in her stomach. Frantically, she
swiped the crusty fly stuck in the web and the disgusting stickiness
from her skin.

Blackness coiled along the rotted wood pile. A
mouse squeaked, scurried out and scampered away. The shade loomed
larger, distorted in the flickering light. She flinched back a step.
With a shaking hand, she clutched the crucifix around her neck. The
shadow crossed the pitchfork, fell on the coffin.

Darkness
coalesced into the figure of a winged man. Two yellow orbs glowed in
his leathery gray face. The wings were shiny, rubbery black with spines
and points. A sweet smell rose from him, but she knew the fragrance
was a glamour masking the reek of the Pit.

"Daakiel," she whispered.

"Well
met, Ravenwood." A laugh rumbled from his broad chest. “Such pretty
blonde hair and lovely ivory skin, but beneath your rose and gold beauty
is a soul as dark as I am.”

As always, her sister’s lover was
naked, his grotesque, swollen equipment proudly on display. She
shuddered head to toe, glancing around quickly, studying her options.

There were none.

The
creature with hellfire eyes stroked a hand with long, vicious claws
over the pine coffin. From inside, came a soft scratching then the lid
rattled, an urgent pounding echoing in the ruined barn.

Ravenwood's
heart caught in her throat. A sudden silence crawled along her nerves.
The owl hooted and took flight, a wingtip brushing her cheek. She
flinched, clamped a hand to her mouth, but a little cry escaped. The
demon flexed his wings, stirring a tornado of moldy straw.

A malicious grin split the monstrous face. "Come my pretty," and with the rasp of claws, he ripped the lid off the coffin.

Her
dead sister sat bolt upright, empty fish eyes locking to Ravenwood's.
A terrifying smile spread Mariana’s blue lips. Crimson pinpointed the
black irises. Any innocence that might have remained in the once Acolyte
had perished. Like a spider, elbows and knees arched at odd angles, she
crawled from the casket. Grave clothes clung to her pale, withered
body but her breasts were exposed and bloody. She was horrible.

Ravenwood
wouldn’t give the monster the satisfaction of screaming. She bit her
tongue hard enough to draw blood. The demon turned and stalked toward
her, fangs dripping thick, green saliva. Horrified, she backed away,
collided with a stack of old cans, sending them clattering to the
ground.

Ravenwood ducked, grabbed the
pitchfork and brandished the rusted prongs at the demon. Another unholy
laugh rumbled from its throat.

"You cannot escape, Ravenwood. Your sister has paid her dues. She is mine. Tonight, Acolyte, you join me in Hell."

Playing
for time, she flung the pitchfork at the demon and dropped the torch.
Smoke billowed from dry straw. Flames sprang up, reaching for the
cracked roof. Laughter boomed in the fire. Engulfed in the holocaust,
her sister's horrified face branded the nightmare in memory. The
demon's leering smile didn’t falter.
She whirled and fled, her legs
pumping, her feet going nowhere. The school seemed hundreds of miles
away and her feet leaden. If she reached the Sanctuary—
A claw
sliced her shoulder. Pain scalded her arm. Blood oozed warmth down her
back. She whirled, staring straight into the demon's burning eyes.
Lethal pointed teeth lined the creature’s gaping maw.

A scream ripped the black velvet night, searing her throat. She stumbled a retreat, praying aloud.

“No answer?” Daarkiel cupped a hand to his pointed ear. “Pray to someone who will hear you.”

The ground beneath her feet rolled and tossed. She fell to her knees. Fear lodged in her dry throat, strangling her prayers.

“You
have taken my lover from me. Burned her alive, you did.” The creature
beckoned with a bloody claw. “You will replace her.”

An image of her sister’s living cadaver blinded her. She shook her head. “Never.”

The
earth opened, swallowing her. Down she plunged into a loamy grave, the
velocity of her fall sweeping her robe over her head. Her feet scraped
something hard. Bones. She didn’t have time to scream. The hole
closed over her head, burying her alive.

Insects slithered over
her feet. Something crept down her back. She swallowed the horror and
the bile burning her throat. The black dirt caressed her naked arms and
legs and matted her hair. Trapped in the earth and in her robe, unable
to claw for the surface, she held her breath until her lungs threatened
to implode. Terror gripped her heart in an icy hand.

I’m going to suffocate.

A
desperate gasp for breath sucked the fatal soil into her mouth and
nose. Ravenwood whispered her final prayer. For forgiveness.